Boilerhouse

Personal Computer News

Overall 5/10

Mike Gerrard 5/10

PRICE: £6.95 PUBLISHER: Front Runner [redacted] The first thing you see when you start to load Boilerhouse is the short header program called 'Boilerboot', which on this occasion seemed more than appropriate as I wanted to boot the game out of the window. What was it? The relentless off-key music? Well, that didn't help, nor did the fact that although it has a Kempston joystick option, when I chose that option the game froze as soon as I moved the joystick and I had to reload. The same thing happened again, so I had to use keyboard control. The game does also support (in theory at least) an Interface 2 joystick. The other drawback was that there seems to be no way to break out of the game once you've chosen which of the nine skill levels to go for. You can't try a different level as you appear to have infinite lives. The idea behind the game is that you're in a room with four boilers, and you have to ensure that none of them overheats or they'll explode. Beside each boiler is a pressure valve and you must move your man till he's in front of this. Pressing the key 5 releases the pressure on the boiler (keys 1-4 govern movement). Meanwhile, of course, pressure is building up elsewhere, so off you go to the boiler that seems in most danger of imminent explosion. The boilers are on two different levels, and you must climb a ladder to get to the two on the upper level. The ones upstairs, though, are on either side of a divide, and you must constantly move the ladder either side of the divide in order to run up to each of the boilers in turn. When you're on the ground you move the ladder by pressing the left or right key and key 5 simultaneously. The game is far from easy, yet it soon becomes boring, it is also one of those frustrating games where you have to be placed absolutely right in order to do things. You spend a lot of time inching back and forth, not a good game.